Multi-antenna transmission techniques can significantly increase the data rates and reliability of wireless communication systems, especially in systems where the transmitter and the receiver are both equipped with multiple antennas to permit the use of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission techniques. Advanced communication standards such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced utilize MIMO transmission techniques that may permit data to be transmitted over multiple different spatially-multiplexed channels simultaneously, thereby significantly increasing data throughput.
While MIMO transmission techniques can significantly increase throughput, such techniques can greatly increase the complexity of managing radio channels. Additionally, many advanced communication technologies, such as LTE, rely on a substantial amount of control signaling to optimize the configuration of transmitting devices and their use of the shared radio channel. Because of the increased amount of control signaling in advanced communication technologies, it is often necessary for user data and control signaling to share transmission resources. For example, in LTE systems, control signaling and user data are, in certain situations, multiplexed by user equipment (“UE”) for transmission over a physical uplink shared channel (“PUSCH”).
However, conventional solutions for allocating transmission resources are designed for use with single layer transmission schemes in which only a single codeword of user data is transmitted at a time. As a result, such resource allocation solutions fail to provide optimal allocation of transmission resources between control information and user data when MIMO techniques are being utilized to transmit data on multiple layers simultaneously. Additionally, in MIMO systems, sub-optimal precoder selection may result in deteriorated performance for control signaling. This deterioration may be especially significant when low transmission ranks are used. As a result, conventional solutions may be particularly inadequate for multi-layer transmissions with low ranks when a sub-optimal precoder is selected.